Airy waffle is no help to Ukraine

Sir, – Roger Cole’s assertion that US president Joe Biden’s recent remarks on negotiating with Vladimir Putin mark a “major foreign policy change” is factually incorrect (Letters, December 6th). Mr Biden was reiterating the policy line the US has held since the start of the war – that negotiations can occur if and when Putin demonstrates a willingness to end the war and remove Russian forces from Ukraine.

While ignorance of what US foreign policy actually consists of is par for the course for the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, it is telling that Mr Cole neglected to include the Russian response to Mr Biden’s speech, which was to reject the possibility of negotiations outright.

Time and again Pana has refused to acknowledge Russian agency in initiating and continuing the invasion of Ukraine, in favour of knee-jerk anti-Americanism and airy waffle about a “ceasefire” (which would allow Russia to rearm and reorganise for a renewed offensive) and “negotiations” (under a UN format which does not exist, and which would presumably involve ceding Ukrainian territory without Kyiv’s consent, in violation of the most fundamental principles of international law).

This is not a constructive contribution to the dialogue on how to end this brutal conflict; it is empty moral posturing.

The Irish Times view on Irish banking: some welcome new competition

---

Gerard Howlin: We now know which hospitals are overspending and which are delivering. Let’s fund them accordingly

---

Ulster hold on for crucial bonus point win over Benetton

---

Quiet quitting: You always had workers who did 9-5 but it’s a creeping malaise, employers say

---

Mr Cole ends his letter by quoting John F Kennedy. He would do better to listen to the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” – Yours, etc,

DARAGH McDOWELL,

London.